Roxanne Shante & Clues at Pop Montreal

I’d like to state, for the record, that I’m not a great cameraman. I have little training and don’t like pushing through crowds to get to the front. But what I lack in those areas, I make up for in tallness.

Last night, bike and head cold in tow, I checked out some highlights of Pop Montreal, Day 2. As always with the busy nights out at Pop, you often see as many great shows as you miss- Loudon Wainwright III and Fever Ray I’m looking at you. But I’m happy with my choices.

Up top, you’ll see the legendary ROXANNE SHANTE. Born in Queensbridge, New York, Shante first grabbed the microphone at age 14 when she recorded Roxanne’s Revenge, later becoming a part of the Juice Crew alongside hugely influential names like Marley Marl, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie and more. On stage at Pop Montreal, she did some of her own material but relied largely on back-and-forth audience participation. In this video, she invited someone out of the crowd to join her on stage. That man was “Earl” and he was clearly excited to be there.

The video below is of the Montreal band CLUES. One of the Montreal’s increasingly poorly kept secrets, Clues is made up Alden Penner (Unicorns), Brendan Reed (Les Angles Morts, The Arcade Fire) and several other equally prolific local musicians. One of Montreal’s great independent labels, Constellation, released the band’s debut in May, 2009. Their show last night at Cabaret was wonderfully all over the place, like my camera work.

I’ll have more Pop Montreal videos coming out, track them down through my FACEBOOK, TWITTER or YOUTUBE accounts.